Plugin development
Contents
Create a new Plugin
A simple tool helps to get started with the development of plugins. It's an Ant Task named 'create-plugin' that is available from the freeplane_framework/ant directory.
Interactive
The task reads all required parameters from the command line by default. The following transcript shows input and output of a create-plugin invocation (Windows/Cygwin):
/devel/freeplane-bazaar-repo/1_0_x/freeplane_framework/ant $ ant create-plugin Buildfile: build.xml create-plugin: [create-plugin] => Please enter required plugin name: helloworld [create-plugin] => Optional: Does this plugin contribute to the GUI? (yes, no) yes [create-plugin] New plugin created in C:\devel\freeplane-bazaar-repo\1_0_x\freeplane_plugin_helloworld [create-plugin] What next? [create-plugin] * import plugin into Eclipse via Import... -> Existing Projects into Workspace [create-plugin] * add required external jars to C:\devel\freeplane-bazaar-repo\1_0_x\freeplane_plugin_helloworld\lib [create-plugin] * add required external jars and required Freeplane projects to classpath [create-plugin] * search for "TODO" in the project and fill the gaps [create-plugin] * add the following element to freeplane_framework/ant/build.xml: [create-plugin] <antcall target="makePlugin" inheritall="false"> [create-plugin] <param name="anttarget" value="dist"/> [create-plugin] <param name="targetdir" value="plugins"/> [create-plugin] <param name="plugindir" value="freeplane_plugin_helloworld"/> [create-plugin] <param name="pluginname" value="org.freeplane.plugin.helloworld"/> [create-plugin] </antcall>
Follow the suggestions in the printed message.
Non-interactive
If you want to do it non-interactively instead you have to create your own (temporary) Ant task in freeplane_framework/ant/build.xml like this:
<target name="create-plugin-batch">
<create-plugin baseDir="." pluginname="helloworld" hasAction="true" />
</target>
Tasks in Plugin development
Add options to the OptionPanel
The core plugins register their options via the configuration file freeplane/resources/xml/preferences.xml. Plugins can do it quite similar by defining their own preferences.xml (by convention in freeplane_plugin_<plugin>/org/freeplane/plugin/<plugin>/preferences.xml); here from the script plugin:
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<preferences_structure>
<tabbed_pane>
<tab name="plugins">
<separator name="scripting">
<boolean name="execute_scripts_without_asking" />
<boolean name="execute_scripts_without_file_restriction" />
<boolean name="execute_scripts_without_network_restriction" />
<boolean name="execute_scripts_without_exec_restriction" />
<boolean name="signed_script_are_trusted" />
<string name="script_user_key_name_for_signing" />
<string name="script_directories" />
</separator>
</tab>
</tabbed_pane>
</preferences_structure>
The option names have to be added to Resource_en.properties (excerpt):
OptionPanel.execute_scripts_without_asking = Scripts should be carried out without confirmation? OptionPanel.execute_scripts_without_asking.tooltip = <html>Freeplane scripts are principally able... OptionPanel.execute_scripts_without_exec_restriction = Permit to Execute other Applications (NOT recommended)
For an example of how options can be registered at the option panel see org.freeplane.plugin.script.ScriptingRegistration: <groovy> private void addPropertiesToOptionPanel() {
final URL preferences = this.getClass().getResource("preferences.xml");
if (preferences == null)
throw new RuntimeException("cannot open preferences");
modeController.getOptionPanelBuilder().load(preferences);
} </groovy>
The options can be queried like this: <groovy> String executeWithoutAsking = ResourceController.getResourceController()
.getProperty("execute_scripts_without_asking");
</groovy>
